Normative Fiction-Making and the World of the Fiction

Abstract

In recent work, Kendall Walton has abandoned his very influential account of the fictionality of p in a fictional work in terms of prescriptions to imagine emanating from it. He offers examples allegedly showing that a prescription to imagine p in a given work of fiction is not sufficient for the fictionality of p in that work. In this article, both in support and further elaboration of a constitutive-norms speech-act variation on Walton's account that I have defended previously, I critically discuss his objections. In addition to answering his concerns and developing the account further, I provide additional abductive support for its explanatory virtues vis-à-vis institutional accounts like Walton's and Gricean speech-act proposals.